Dems: Obama jobs plan means more than $7 billion for New York

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — The state stands to gain more than $7 billion to rebuild roads, modernize schools and transit systems and put more than 83,000 people to work under President Barack Obama’s proposed jobs program.

The White House and congressional Democrats estimate that $3 billion that could flow quickly to New York would go to hiring at least 38,800 construction workers to build and upgrade highways, airports, railroads and other transit networks.

Their state-by-state breakdown of the plan shows that another $2.2 billion allocation to modernize public schools and community colleges would support 26,300 jobs in New York, and $1.8 billion more would pay for 18,000 teaching and first responder jobs.

An estimated $1.6 billion would flow to the public school system in New York City, $68 million to Buffalo’s schools and $56 million to Rochester’s.

The 33,000-student district in Rochester expects the bulk of the money would pay for long-overdue building renovations while the teachers’ union would push to restore 190 arts, music, languages, special-education and other teacher jobs lost to budget cuts in June.

“While I am not a fan of every single initiative this president has launched,” union chief Adam Urbanski said, “one of the strongest things about Obama is he steadfastly believes the only way we can get out of this economic mess is by educating ourselves out of it.”

The president’s $447 billion proposal of tax cuts and new spending was being delivered to Congress today. It has to clear a politically divided Congress, which could scuttle it entirely or enact only parts of it.

The plan envisions state and local governments getting $50 billion for transportation projects, $35 billion for school, police and fire department payrolls, $30 billion to modernize public schools and community colleges and $15 billion to refurbish vacant and foreclosed homes or businesses.

In New York City, the proposed payroll tax cut would create or preserve 25,000 jobs during 2012, according to a preliminary analysis by city Comptroller John Liu. If workers spend even a third of an estimated $4.8 billion in payroll tax savings on consumer goods, that would generate about $70 million in city sales tax revenues, Liu said.

Extending unemployment benefits would also help those people out of work for longer than is regularly covered, Liu said. Through July, more than 150,000 New Yorkers had been out of work for more than 39 weeks.